Monday, March 21, 2011

My Spring Training Trip - Day 1 Saturday March 19th

For the second year in a row, I made the trip out to Camelback Ranch to watch the Boys in Blue up close & personal. I made the trip out to the desert with my girl C.J. This was her first spring training trip so she was looking forward to it. We arrived late Friday evening and hit Camelback Ranch early Saturday morning. We headed out to the practice fields and watched as the Dodger pitchers took fielding practice. They were working on fielding bunts and making pick off throws. I had to laugh a little when I saw Ted Lilly walking to the field with a bat in hand like he was batting clean up.

After watching the pitchers work out we entered the Stadium because a majority of the everyday players weren't out on the practice fields. Once inside we noticed long lines down for of the aisles as fans were lining up for autographs. At the bottom of each line there was a representative from the Red Cross with a big bucket taking monetary donations for the Tsunami/Earthquake Relief Fund. Also at the bottom of each line were 2-3 Dodger playes signing autographs. Several minor leaguers participated as well as Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, James Loney & Andre Ethier. Not being big fans of lines C.J. & I decided to pass but we watched as the Camelback staff kept the lines orderly and moving. The line closest to us had Andre Ethier signing autographs for most of the 1 hour period.

Most of the players stopped signing at 12:30 and headed in to the clubhouse to get ready for game time. To his credit, even though the public address announcer made several announcements that the signing was over, Andre kept signing & signing. He didn't stop signing until about 12:50 p.m.﻿

At 1:05, the Dodgers took on the Brewers with Hiroki Kuroda getting the start against former Dodger Randy Wolf. Most of the Dodger regulars got the day off and the game ended in a 6-6 tie after 10 innings.